The present invention generally relates to tape loading devices for recording and/or reproducing apparatuses, and more particularly to a tape loading device for a magnetic recording and/or reproducing apparatus which carries out recording and/or reproduction by drawing out a magnetic tape from a tape cassette and loading the magnetic tape unto a tape path in which the magnetic tape is wrapped around a peripheral surface of a guide drum.
In the conventional recording and/or reproducing apparatus (video tape recorder, or VTR) which is loaded with a tape cassette, the apparatus was designed so that a tape loading operation in which a magnetic tape is drawn out of the tape cassette and wrapped around a peripheral surface of a guide drum, is carried out according to one of two methods. According to one method of carrying out this loading operation, the tape tension is not controlled during the loading operation, and the tape is loaded by drawing out the tape from both a supply reel and a take-up reel. According to the other method of carrying out the loading operation, the loading operation is carried out in a state where a constant take-up torque is applied to one reel disc, that is, a take-up reel disc, for example. However, the conventional apparatus having these designs suffered the following disadvantages.
I. Because the tension in the loaded tape changes according to the amount of tape roll remaining on each of the reels, the value of the tension in the tape when the tape is loaded and the value to which the tension is controlled when the tape travels may greatly differ. In such a case, there will be a great change in the tape tension, as the mode of the apparatus changes to a mode in which the tape travels from a state where the tape loading operation is completed. Such a great change in the tape tension will make the change of state, from the state where the tape loading operation is completed to the mode in which the tape travels, unstable.
II. The tape must be wrapped around the peripheral surface of the guide drum in a state where the lower edge of the tape is guided along a tape guide band of the guide drum. Thus, especially in the initial stage in which the tape begins to make contact with the guide drum, the tape which is drawn out of the tape cassette must be supported stably. However, in the conventional apparatus described before, the tape will be drawn out from both the supply reel and the take-up reel within the tape cassette when the tape roll remaining on these reels are substantially the same, and the tape cannot be supported stably in this case. Thus, in such a case, it becomes difficult to wrap the tape around the peripheral surface of the guide drum with precision, and the tape loading operation may fail.